Liquid Cooling vs. Air Cooling Benchmark In-Depth (NH-D15, NZXT X62, & More)
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Date: 2020-05-06
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Comments and reviews: 10
Salty
I might replace my 240 AiO with a NH-D15. My primary issue in regards to cooling is case airflow - I'm using the define C and in my particular situation i can only fit the rad on the front, but i've a long enough GPU that i have to mount the radiator fans on the outside of the case, under the front cover which restricts the air movement a lot (still functional enough, but there is a considerable difference between front cover on an off, more than expected with the intended cooler installation. If i can rid the AiO and install the front intakes properly i should have better enough air movement to offset the potential loss in CPU cooling performance and in general have better case temps helping the GPU too. Next build i'd probably go with a bit less compact case again and install the largest water cooling loop i can fit, but in my current specific situation the watercooler route is causing enough issues to outweigh any benefits. Oh yeah and my particular AiO is not that great. I need to refill it at least every couple of months or even the tinies amount of air in the loop starts making constant pump noise, and i like my computer to stay quiet.
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I might replace my 240 AiO with a NH-D15. My primary issue in regards to cooling is case airflow - I'm using the define C and in my particular situation i can only fit the rad on the front, but i've a long enough GPU that i have to mount the radiator fans on the outside of the case, under the front cover which restricts the air movement a lot (still functional enough, but there is a considerable difference between front cover on an off, more than expected with the intended cooler installation. If i can rid the AiO and install the front intakes properly i should have better enough air movement to offset the potential loss in CPU cooling performance and in general have better case temps helping the GPU too. Next build i'd probably go with a bit less compact case again and install the largest water cooling loop i can fit, but in my current specific situation the watercooler route is causing enough issues to outweigh any benefits. Oh yeah and my particular AiO is not that great. I need to refill it at least every couple of months or even the tinies amount of air in the loop starts making constant pump noise, and i like my computer to stay quiet.
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RustedYoda
i'v never though watercooling is worth it. for one it's a major point of failure. that goes, so does the rest of your system (pretty much) and most warranties don't cover water damage. you really only get coverage for water damage if you buy a prebuilt with a water loop. and second. my main reason you just don't need it. even a i9 9900k can run at its rated 5. 0ghz locked speed on air, sure it'll run kinda hot but whatever. the extra heat isn't going to shave much life off the cpu, and believe me when i say you'll be way past this cpu by the time it breaks. if you like to overclock then yeah i can see atleast a reason to go with water, but in most cases the money you spent on an AIO can just get you a better cpu and give you more performance then overclocking the cheaper one. really the only reason i see to actually get water over air is the looks. it does look really nice having an AIO or even a custom loop in your system, just imo it's not really worth it over air. to much to worry about and you don't need it for stock usage and even modest overclocking on most cpu's (though of course you'll be able to go farther with water)
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i'v never though watercooling is worth it. for one it's a major point of failure. that goes, so does the rest of your system (pretty much) and most warranties don't cover water damage. you really only get coverage for water damage if you buy a prebuilt with a water loop. and second. my main reason you just don't need it. even a i9 9900k can run at its rated 5. 0ghz locked speed on air, sure it'll run kinda hot but whatever. the extra heat isn't going to shave much life off the cpu, and believe me when i say you'll be way past this cpu by the time it breaks. if you like to overclock then yeah i can see atleast a reason to go with water, but in most cases the money you spent on an AIO can just get you a better cpu and give you more performance then overclocking the cheaper one. really the only reason i see to actually get water over air is the looks. it does look really nice having an AIO or even a custom loop in your system, just imo it's not really worth it over air. to much to worry about and you don't need it for stock usage and even modest overclocking on most cpu's (though of course you'll be able to go farther with water)
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Nathan
You neglected to mention that time to heat soak works in both ways. Longer to heat means longer to cool. This can create some other hurdles like increasing the duration of thermal soaking your entire system. It takes longer to achieve a stable overclock since you need to soak your cooler before you soak your case. I know some people who have neglected this with GPU /CPU overclocks and after about an hour of gaming their PCs would shut off because they did their OCs before the entire system was soaked. Not a big deal but a factor to mention. Also If the question is liquid vs air you need to control for the fans. Spending 200 on a cooler will obviously come with more premium and quality products including better fans. I understand the methodology of testing units as a whole but all units should be tested with the highest quality fans possible for each class (air vs liquid. If i can buy 30 fans and put them on a 20 cooler and get better performance than a 160 AIO that is something to consider.
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You neglected to mention that time to heat soak works in both ways. Longer to heat means longer to cool. This can create some other hurdles like increasing the duration of thermal soaking your entire system. It takes longer to achieve a stable overclock since you need to soak your cooler before you soak your case. I know some people who have neglected this with GPU /CPU overclocks and after about an hour of gaming their PCs would shut off because they did their OCs before the entire system was soaked. Not a big deal but a factor to mention. Also If the question is liquid vs air you need to control for the fans. Spending 200 on a cooler will obviously come with more premium and quality products including better fans. I understand the methodology of testing units as a whole but all units should be tested with the highest quality fans possible for each class (air vs liquid. If i can buy 30 fans and put them on a 20 cooler and get better performance than a 160 AIO that is something to consider.
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ICEMANZIDANE
a few years ago when i build my Pc i bought a AIO water cooler for my CPU. A few months ago, so after years, i decided to test overclocking my CPU. Holly shit is the cooler bad. This cooler was around 120bucks or so and more expensive than top air coolers. The cooler cant handle a slight OC and i assume, the liquid in it gets hot and the cooler cant cool it fast enough anymore. This is the biggest issue in most water cooled system cause the distance (length) is too short. My cooler works great under normal circumstances but the slight oc causes the liquid to heat up and the hot liquid gets to the cooler and the cooler cant cool it down anymore as good as before. So the hotter liquid get to the CPU again and gets more hotter -> loop. This literally causes a 10 degree jump in 1second. 88 degrees, 89 degrees boom 99 degrees. ps: Dont buy anything from enermax
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a few years ago when i build my Pc i bought a AIO water cooler for my CPU. A few months ago, so after years, i decided to test overclocking my CPU. Holly shit is the cooler bad. This cooler was around 120bucks or so and more expensive than top air coolers. The cooler cant handle a slight OC and i assume, the liquid in it gets hot and the cooler cant cool it fast enough anymore. This is the biggest issue in most water cooled system cause the distance (length) is too short. My cooler works great under normal circumstances but the slight oc causes the liquid to heat up and the hot liquid gets to the cooler and the cooler cant cool it down anymore as good as before. So the hotter liquid get to the CPU again and gets more hotter -> loop. This literally causes a 10 degree jump in 1second. 88 degrees, 89 degrees boom 99 degrees. ps: Dont buy anything from enermax
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Drew
I want to see someone review REEVEN coolers! I went with Reeven over the big names after I did a Deepcool on my 7700k and only found a handful of reviews and some of those reviews were great. I'm rocking a 7700k at 4. 8 and I am happy. Tho I do have the delid kit in a package and I am gonna do this as I pass this platform to my family for the livingroom machine; ) But Reeven are quite nice, it was hell of a thing to get their custom fans and I ordered from an outfit, I believe in Australia (iirc) but after that upgrade my chip was doing well. 4. 8ghz and only hit 80c if I hammer it. Can't wait to see the delid results if I can give up these fans and cooler. So to put it on paper I have the OG Justice with an extra Coldwing fan. It was really happy and with the numbers that were out back then (even older for my 7700k build) I was excited and am happy.
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I want to see someone review REEVEN coolers! I went with Reeven over the big names after I did a Deepcool on my 7700k and only found a handful of reviews and some of those reviews were great. I'm rocking a 7700k at 4. 8 and I am happy. Tho I do have the delid kit in a package and I am gonna do this as I pass this platform to my family for the livingroom machine; ) But Reeven are quite nice, it was hell of a thing to get their custom fans and I ordered from an outfit, I believe in Australia (iirc) but after that upgrade my chip was doing well. 4. 8ghz and only hit 80c if I hammer it. Can't wait to see the delid results if I can give up these fans and cooler. So to put it on paper I have the OG Justice with an extra Coldwing fan. It was really happy and with the numbers that were out back then (even older for my 7700k build) I was excited and am happy.
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mjc0961
25: 50 - I dunno, I think I prefer my fans to suck. A fan that's sucking is also a fan that's blowing air through my cooler. If your fan doesn't suck, time for a new fan. Also, I choose to believe every instance of what it boils down to in this video was a water pun and nobody can stop me. Okay but jokes aside, failure and cost over time are why I'll keep using air coolers. 10- 30 for a new fan VS 100 for an entirely new AIO if it's not refillable, or something not user serviceable breaks? The choice is obvious to me. Air coolers are cheaper and create less waste. And subjectively, I can't stand seeing AIO tubes in a build. Might as well not bother cable managing once you have two giant unruly tubes hanging out in your case. It already looks like trash, so just let all the cables do whatever and slap a metal side panel on your case to hide it all.
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25: 50 - I dunno, I think I prefer my fans to suck. A fan that's sucking is also a fan that's blowing air through my cooler. If your fan doesn't suck, time for a new fan. Also, I choose to believe every instance of what it boils down to in this video was a water pun and nobody can stop me. Okay but jokes aside, failure and cost over time are why I'll keep using air coolers. 10- 30 for a new fan VS 100 for an entirely new AIO if it's not refillable, or something not user serviceable breaks? The choice is obvious to me. Air coolers are cheaper and create less waste. And subjectively, I can't stand seeing AIO tubes in a build. Might as well not bother cable managing once you have two giant unruly tubes hanging out in your case. It already looks like trash, so just let all the cables do whatever and slap a metal side panel on your case to hide it all.
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Ukyo82
Better bet on air cooler is my view, just risk not worth it specially for average users unless have some else boundaries case size and etc, but regular user in first place not cleaning his pc and not open up for very long times, point is risk is much bigger something to leak from corrosion when years pass, there for enthusiast water cooling is more fun and better performance which can be better choice but is personal. My brother buy PC few years ago with 7700k and not buy very good cooler, processor start run very hot even without overclocking, was need change cooler and when do research happen good air coolers not fit in his case because they are too tall, so only choice was get water cooling(unless change and PC case too, is good make research for all parts before start building new computer: D
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Better bet on air cooler is my view, just risk not worth it specially for average users unless have some else boundaries case size and etc, but regular user in first place not cleaning his pc and not open up for very long times, point is risk is much bigger something to leak from corrosion when years pass, there for enthusiast water cooling is more fun and better performance which can be better choice but is personal. My brother buy PC few years ago with 7700k and not buy very good cooler, processor start run very hot even without overclocking, was need change cooler and when do research happen good air coolers not fit in his case because they are too tall, so only choice was get water cooling(unless change and PC case too, is good make research for all parts before start building new computer: D
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Ioan
hmm, the test was done on an open test bench. For example, I have a normal tower case, with a D15 and on top I have two 120mm exhaust fans. Now, If I were to replace my D15 with an AIO, mounted on the top spot, I will technically loose those exhaust fans and I will have the radiator fans cooling the radiator, with all the hot air inside the case, that obviously rises and that was previously exhausted by those two 120 mil fans. I would very much like to see a test like that. Open bench is fine and all but I wouldn't necessarily call it real world. later edit: ok, i realized that part of that hot air with the D15 setup will be gone once the D15 is out of the equation but there will sill be some hot air inside the case from the other components, that will rise.
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hmm, the test was done on an open test bench. For example, I have a normal tower case, with a D15 and on top I have two 120mm exhaust fans. Now, If I were to replace my D15 with an AIO, mounted on the top spot, I will technically loose those exhaust fans and I will have the radiator fans cooling the radiator, with all the hot air inside the case, that obviously rises and that was previously exhausted by those two 120 mil fans. I would very much like to see a test like that. Open bench is fine and all but I wouldn't necessarily call it real world. later edit: ok, i realized that part of that hot air with the D15 setup will be gone once the D15 is out of the equation but there will sill be some hot air inside the case from the other components, that will rise.
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Alex
CPU temps are only meaningful in terms of noise and chip lifespan. You held noise constant, and none of the temp differences in any chart you made are going to produce a meaningful difference in lifespan, so what exactly was the point of doing all that testing? You could've easily held temperature constant and reported meaningful noise results, but you didn't. Maybe because the air coolers would've faired better? Maybe because the graphs would've been even flatter? Maybe because it would've forced you to admit the actual logical takeaway from these results: the difference between air and liquid is functionally meaningless for 99. 9% of use cases, so don't waste money on liquid unless you need the inside of your PC to look a certain way.
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CPU temps are only meaningful in terms of noise and chip lifespan. You held noise constant, and none of the temp differences in any chart you made are going to produce a meaningful difference in lifespan, so what exactly was the point of doing all that testing? You could've easily held temperature constant and reported meaningful noise results, but you didn't. Maybe because the air coolers would've faired better? Maybe because the graphs would've been even flatter? Maybe because it would've forced you to admit the actual logical takeaway from these results: the difference between air and liquid is functionally meaningless for 99. 9% of use cases, so don't waste money on liquid unless you need the inside of your PC to look a certain way.
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RogueRAZR
Im curious and a little disappointed that this wasn't tested in this video. I'm really curious about the benefits and comparisons between liquid and air in actual use in different systems. For example, my personal system I have a 360mm liquid cooler on the intake. I do this because I found that my GPU made ambient in the system so high that the cooler did basically nothing after a long gaming session with the case that I use. I'm curious as to how an air cooler might perform in the same scenario. Also as to the setup of GPUs and how the GPU and case might effect what kind of cooler is best as well as the optimal places to put your radiator in the case of liquid.
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Im curious and a little disappointed that this wasn't tested in this video. I'm really curious about the benefits and comparisons between liquid and air in actual use in different systems. For example, my personal system I have a 360mm liquid cooler on the intake. I do this because I found that my GPU made ambient in the system so high that the cooler did basically nothing after a long gaming session with the case that I use. I'm curious as to how an air cooler might perform in the same scenario. Also as to the setup of GPUs and how the GPU and case might effect what kind of cooler is best as well as the optimal places to put your radiator in the case of liquid.
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